Discovery of a 130 million-year-old water-dwelling plant has raised questions with regard to very early evolutionary history of flowering plants. The research paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences shows that Montsechia vidalii could be one of earth's first flowering plants.

The study researchers have said that the discovery could alter many theories on how angiosperms came. Flowers were not present from beginning, they are recent addition. Before flowers, plants used to manage reproduction without growing many petaled lures for insects.

"The world of 120 million years ago was one of dynamic biological processes. During that time the flowering plants emerged as the dominant global floristic element, a transformative event that ultimately altered the character of the entire planet", affirmed Donald Les of the University of Connecticut.

The aquatic plants estimated to have lived between 130 million and 125 million years ago have grown during the late Cretaceous. It was the time when dinosaurs still walked on earth. It looked like its still-living descendants known as coontails or hornworts.

The plant did not have petals or nectar-producing parts, but it had a single seed. The study authors said that the lower Cretaceous aquatic angiosperms have given birth to a possibility that aquatic plants were common at an early stage of angiosperm evolution.

It is even said that the aquatic habitats could have played an important role in diversification of some early angiosperm lineages.